Web Worker Daily

Being a project driven nomadic my-company-is-my-laptop web working entrepreneur or employee can be like being stuck in a drier on high with a fire hose of information and data stuck in for fun. How do you cope?

For years as a developer and writer I’ve used David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology; but I’ve been increasingly nagged by the question of whether GTD out of the box really worked for my increasingly webized life.

Earlier this month I had the chance to interview David Allen so I grabbed the opportunity to scratch that itch and ask him a few questions about GTD and web work. (Read part 1 of the conversation, focusing on health and stress)

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For most web workers stress is an inescapable fact of life – and sometimes death. The links between stress and serious, you-are-so-screwed illness are real and the news is anything but good:

Many people report experiencing physical symptoms (77 percent) and psychological symptoms (73 percent) related to stress in the last month. Physical symptoms of stress include: fatigue (51 percent); headache (44 percent); upset stomach (34 percent); muscle tension (30 percent); change in appetite (23 percent), teeth grinding (17 percent); change in sex drive (15 percent); and feeling dizzy (13 percent). Psychological symptoms of stress include: experiencing irritability or anger (50 percent); feeling nervous (45 percent); lack of energy (45 percent); and feeling as though you could cry (35 percent). In addition, almost half (48 percent) of Americans report lying awake at night due to stress.” - APA study.

For me, the single biggest stress reduction tool I’ve found this decade has been David Allen’s Getting Things Done: A Guide to Stress Free Productivity book and what’s become something of a movement among web workers: Getting Things Done (GTD).Earlier this month, I interviewed David Allen with an eye towards finding out how he stays healthy. Excerpts from that conversation:

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